Posted on 10/15/2003 9:59:46 AM PDT by oneday
Posted on Wed, Oct. 15, 2003
Removal of brain-damaged woman's feeding tube to proceed MITCH STACY Associated Press
DOVER, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday he has ordered his legal team to try to find a way to intervene in the case of severely disabled woman who is scheduled to have the feeding tube keeping her alive removed.
Bush's comments came after a 20-minute meeting with the family of Terri Schiavo, who faces a 2 p.m. Wednesday deadline in the removal of the tube. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has been granted permission to remove the tube in a six-year legal battle against her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
Bush said his attorneys are looking for legal alternatives to somehow block the removal of the tube, but did not know yet what they might be.
"We are going to seek whatever legal alternatives are available and seek the best minds to find another avenue to submit to the courts to see if there can be a change in this ruling," Bush said at an appearance in Dover dedicating new housing for migrant workers.
"I am not a doctor, I am not a lawyer, But I know that if a person can be able to sustain life without life support, that should be tried," the governor said, adding the "ultimate decision of this is in the courts."
Bob Schindler Jr., Terri Schiavo's brother, said the family was heartened by the governor's last-minute effort. The Schindlers have pleaded with Bush - who in previous legal findings have supported their efforts to obtain therapy for their daughter - to intervene.
"The family has not given up hope on Terri," Bob Schindler Jr. said following the meeting with Bush. "We have spoken to the governor, and he hasn't given up hope either."
Terri Schiavo, 39, is expected to die within two weeks after the tube's removal. She's been in a vegetative state since suffering a heart attack in 1990. Her parents believe she is capable of learning how to eat and drink on her own.
A state appeals court in Lakeland rejected motions by an attorney for the Schindlers and their legal remedies have been exhausted, their lawyer said Tuesday.
Michael Schiavo says he is carrying out his wife's wishes that she not be kept alive artificially. The parents say their daughter has shown signs of trying to communicate and could be rehabilitated.
"In our eyes, it's murder," Bob Schindler said Wednesday on CBS' "Early Show."
George Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo, said that the Schindlers were "still in denial" over Terri Schiavo's wishes not to be kept alive.
Doctors have testified that the noises and facial expressions Terri Schiavo makes are reflexes and do not indicate that she has enough mental capabilities to communicate with others.
Thank you for writing to Governor Bush and expressing interest in the well-being of Terri Schindler Schiavo. He has asked me to respond on his behalf. The Governor is very concerned about Terri, and his thoughts and prayers are with the Schindler family.
The Governor, more than any other state official, has a responsibility to ensure that the laws be faithfully executed and to give a voice to the citizens of the state. It is because of these dual responsibilities that the Governor felt compelled to write a letter to the circuit court judge expressing an opinion on this difficult matter and to file an amicus brief to accompany the Schindlers' federal lawsuit. The Governor is disappointed by the decisions made by the state and federal courts in these cases.
However, the Florida Constitution prevents the Governor from acting further. Florida law gives the courts, not the Governor, authority over guardianships. For that reason, despite his great concern for Terri's life, the Governor has no power to intervene further.
Thank you again for writing.
Sincerely,
Lauren O'Connor
Office of Citizens' Services
Since when does one go to jail for FEEDING another human being?
THINK PEOPLE!!!!
We will ALL be judged.
When they're trespassing in a hospital to do so.
Many hundreds of dedicated pro-lifers risked arrest and went to jail for trespassing on abortion clinic property, in order to block the door, and prevent women from getting abortions.
Is this what you want to do?
Trespass to get inside and feed her.
It's a noble and heroic gesture, but I assure you, you will be arrested.
Consider the costs.....
Perhaps....perhaps, if thousands, millions had stood with us in '88, we wouldn't be so far down this slope today!
As much as I would like for that to be so, I really can't think of what Jeb could have done differently, unless he were to engage in a wholesale revolt against the judiciary - but the power for such an action belongs to the legislature, in the form of impeaching the judge in this case, not to the governor.
As it is now, any state district judge in FL has more power than the governor!
We've had 30 million fetuses killed because of a judicial fiat. Unfortunately, Terri may become another victim on that list. This is part of a wider problem of reining in the judiciary. IMO, without a clear written document, i.e. a living will, hearsay simply isn't sufficient to allow the state to force actions that result in a person's death. We have elaborate appeals for a convicted killer on death row to check the veracity of the evidence that convicted them, but apparently a very low threshhold suffices to kill a helpless woman.
I was simply answering the question as to how someone feeding her could get arrested.
Okay, I know this may sound odd to you, but this really smacks of a Jezebel spirit, or a Jezebel curse. Can't say who's motivating it, either Schiavo or the "new bride," but read 1 Kings 21. Jezebel used false testimony to have a man killed in order to possess his property.
Well I really don't have a National Guard or State police force to call upon for help, he on the other hand.......
There is no way on God's green earth that I have the means at my disposal that he does. The reason he does not intervene is because they can let the court do their dirty work, but it does reveal their heart.
Exactly....Amen
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